"We have the option to pay this within a year, according to the schedule," Center Party secretary general Anneli Ott told ERR. "I believe the party can manage this."

Ott added that according to the schedule, the party has until next April to pay off the €1 million fine. "The first €120,000 is what we will pay immediately, and then we will follow the schedule with 12 installments," she said.

"We have thoroughly reviewed our budget and accounted for this, and I believe that with the provided payment schedule, we'll manage just fine," the secretary general continued. "We're already currently in a position to begin making these payments."

Following an initial payment of €120,000, the Center Party will be left with a monthly payment of around €73,000.

Ott also added that the party's members support the Center Party's participation in the local government council elections coming up this fall.

On February 7, the Supreme Court of Estonia upheld Tallinn Circuit Court's March 2024 ruling convicting the Center Party, its former secretary general Mihhail Korb and businessman Hillar Teder of influence peddling in the Porto Franco case.

Both Teder and Korb were issued suspended prison sentences by the second-tier court — of one year and five months and one year and two months, respectively — which will not be enforced if the defendants do not commit any new intentional criminal offenses within a two-year probation period.

The Center Party, meanwhile, was sentenced to a pecuniary punishment of €750,000. The circuit court then increased this fine by €250,000 — the amount still outstanding from a previous, September 2019 ruling against the party by Harju County Court  — bringing the Center Party's aggregate fine to a total of €1 million.

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